and i stand firmly in support of -- with working with our families in the postal unions, and i have committed to supporting the postal services reorganization to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. however i am very concerned with some of the elements of this area. this congress in 1970, through the postal reform act, took action in essence to take politics out of the postal service. and also gave workers collective bargaining rights. i'm afraid that some here today are seeking to return politics back to the postal service, and perhaps strip those rights are this committee certainly has a welcomed responsibility to perform oversight duties for the postal service. and i don't think anyone would question that. i think many here, like you, want to see the postal service sexy. the service that usps so admirably and consistently provides personifies the best of america. what's disturbing is that some want to use this area to attack something else that best personifies them. america, workers rights, and the freedom that comes with collective bargaining. i hope i'm wrong and i hope that we ar

the policy committee of labour notes from the postal union from seattle and a great visitor here did you bring yours the bag? the very good questions and ones that are addressed from our own perspective my own people that were involved in the organized campaigns designed fined organizing a lot of different industries what are the appropriate trade-offs between growth and contracts standards? and and what are the quid pro quo in return for getting an employer like at&t wireless like kaiser or a hotel chain to give us a free and fair election will card to a close some form of neutrality? what type of contract will the workers have but over time to improve conditions to look into a prefab deal but doesn't generate revenue for the union to make the organizing rights? with a contradiction of the strategy which we argue in the book that proposed with those complex i did not mention. >> first of all, thank you for writing this book and a much needed discussion. i was in madison for five days of the white changing experience it for no other reason to seek a contingents of 30 year-old's to sa

witnesses and could the postmaster general, the postal workers union president, and the postal service -- witnesses include the postmaster general, the postal workers union president, and others. >> iwe are recommending greater use of non-career or part-time employees in order to reduce the compensation-related expenses. the 10-year strategic plan made similar recommendations. what steps has the postal service taken to accomplish this goal? i remind you that this committee itself -- 87% of our money goes to employees. you're at 80% and you are trying to reduce that further? >> we constantly look to shrink the pie. you will always be higher from a percentage standpoint. we're trying to cut the total costs. we have accomplished that through productivity improvements, headcount reductions, and negotiations. going forward, i mentioned the percentages that we have been able to work out with the apwu. tore working with the apw provide flexible assignments. currently, you have a number of people that will work five days a week, eight hours a day, singing schedule. our needs change daily. -- s

i am here from seattle actually, flew in for postal workers conference, postal workers union and today i got all dressed up and found my fellow postal workers. we visited a house of ill repute after which we went to the senate. [laughter] so my question, sort of a comment. i guess the big deal about this the change in the labor movement around the emergence of john swinney and that election back years ago and andy stern becoming a big leader and a seiu becoming a big leader with no realization that labor had to organize. a simple basic idea, right? organize, organize organize became the watchword watchword and sau was admired from afar. they did organize lots of workers but then somehow somewhere things went wrong and i guess how did it go wrong? what was wrong with the model is that maybe, and i've noticed some unions tend to be heavily staff based in the set for these people who you know might be bright college kids who are really progressive and eager and they are well-intentioned, but they don't have the base. and maybe they have never done the job. maybe they don't really trust th

postal service executives say a tentative agreement with its largest labor union could save billions of dollars. it would freeze salaries for two years. the plan would require more than 200,000 union members to pay a higher percentage of their health cakaicare cost, executiv told the house oversight committee the postal service could possibly run out of money in september. >> we will be insolvent and default on september 30th. we'll default on the debts that we owe the united states at that -- united states government at that point. and i respectfully submit that only you can avoid that fate. >> the postal service has reported losses for five consecutive quarters. union members have until may 10th to approve the deal. >>> okay. if you drive, you already know this, but now there's some numbers to back it up. it's more expensive to own and operate a car. aaa says the new average yearly cost is up nearly $300. gas, tires, registration, everything is rising. if you drive a small sedan, it now costs you about $7,000 a year. a large sedan will cost you just shy of 11 grand. this is just to

union held ft. sumpter. the postalsues two new stamps today. >>> and this morning, nasa is observing 30 years of space shuttle flight from cap canaveral. to mark the anniversary, it's announcing which museums and tourist attractions will become the permanent homes of the shuttles once they're retired this summer. >>> now, for some of you, your local news is coming up next. >> for everybody else, we'll show you how soldiers who fought through one of the toughest battles of the afghan war are being honored by the country they serve. laughs ] a cheese monger, a dairy farmer and a duck walk into this... wait a minute, have you heard this one? nice tie sir. is that a windsor knot? [ male announcer ] we take the time for our cheese to mature before we bake it into every delicious cracker because at cheez-it, real cheese matters. [ female announcer ] we all want cleaner laundry. we all want a world with fewer chemicals. we all want the best of both worlds. introducing all free clear oxi-active. a powerful new detergent withou

postal. everyone wants to help cavalry main solvent many. >>reporter: ken is political director for the united educator of san francisco and 6000 k through 12 teachers in the union and they like other state public employee would be affected by governor brown pension reform plan. package would limit pension spiking. practice of boosting pension benefits with big raise in the last year before worker retire retires. instead pension would be based on worker 3 year average salary and would not include over time or unused vacation time pro-postal would also ban cash payment to raise pension benefits. and paying benefits to workers who have been convicted of employment related felony. lookly reference to bell city manager robert and 7 other bell city officials accused of public corruption. critic say whale brown proposal are a good first step, they don't good far enough. >> governor plan to solve the pension crisis by eliminating the flagrant abuses is just like his plan to solve the budget crisis by taking away bureaucrat cell phones. it's a physician start but it doesn't solve 200 billion dollar problem. >>reporter: but governor brown did say other propose rals still

would the gentlelady oppose an effort to say that the postal service can decide which mail to deliver based on which political candidates their unions support? would the gentlelady say it would be ok for the postal service to do that. mrs. blackburn: the gentleman knows that's not relevant to the discussion we're having here. what we're talking about is the fairness doctrine. mr. polis: reclaiming my time. mrs. blackburn: if the gentleman will focus on the issue -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady will suspend. mr. polis: the fairness doctrine is something i will oppose and the fairness doctrine is consistent with the approach of the gentlelady to the internet. by having net neutrality in place, we prevent fairness doctrine or selective allowance of content to consumers of the internet. the structure is to ensure that everyone has access to putting content on the internet in the same way and that won't be discriminated against based on ideology or considerations. mrs. blackburn: if we snelt -- if the gentleman will yield, any time you give the government the ability to assign authority and value, they are inserted in the proc

postal service? caller: eight years. host: what is your salary? caller: $50,000. guest: this really underlies the attack on unions. there is nothing about deficit reduction, about what happened in wisconsin. the attack on union rights, i think, really put a fire under the labor movement. we do not tell the story well enough. we really have to get out there and some people say that unions are passe. i do not think so at all. the environment we face today, unions are more and more relevant and i think it is up to the people. people will understand this as the race to the bottom continues and as salaries are stagnant for 10 years. host: off of twitter, can we see a protest like ohio, wisconsin, and others like these in dc on the same day as the tea party? guest: we have been geared up for a series of demonstrations should the government shut down. on tuesday, we're going to call people back to work and let the public see that our people really know the damage being done by closing down the government. they know what the backlogs are. they know that there are americans out there waiting for our services. in addition t

i stand firmly in support or in with our families in the postal unions. i am committed to supporting the postal service's real organization to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. i am very concerned with some of the elements of the hearing. to take politics out of the postal service. and the workers' collective bargaining rights. i am afraid that some are seeking to return politics back to the postal service and perhaps strip those rights. this committee has a welcome response ability to perform oversight duty for the postal service. i do not think anyone would question that. many want to see the postal service succeed. the service provided personifies the best of america. what is disturbing is that someone to use this hearing to attack something else that personifies them america, workers' rights, and the freedom that comes with a collective bargaining. i hope i am wrong and that we are here today to help the postal service and its workers find the right path to sustainability and success. i do not think it involves getting in the middle of a colle